Duck needn't be a restaurant-only dish. You can prepare the succulent meat at home.

Ingredients

Method

Cooks Tips

- Ducks come frozen or fresh, as whole birds or in packs of breasts or legs. - All ducks bred in New Zealand for consumption are the Pekin variety: they're white birds that don't fly and are fattened to around six weeks. - There are only 2 or 3 suppliers of duck to the retail market, so you may have to search further afield if you're not in a main centre. - Ducks are generally raised on deep little in open-sided barns with natural light and fresh air and they are feed a balanced, nutritions, non-GE diet. - Clarified duck fat is also available. High in monounsaturated fats, it makes the yummiest roast potatoes. - Weight for weight, ducks cost considerable more than chicken. KEEP IT COOL Store fresh duck in the coldest part of the refrigeratore. Frozen birds, when in special bags, will keep for up to 2 years in the freezer. Follow the insturctions for defrosting; if there are non, defrost in the refrigerator over 24 hours for a whole bird. QUICK QUANTITIES A duck has a longer, leaner frame without the large breast of a chicken. A 1.8kg whole duck will feed 2-3 people (roughly a breast and a leg per person). COOKING CLUES Duck is a water fowl with a thick layer of fat under its skin to keep it warm. This fat is rendered during cooking, making the skin crisp. The simplest way to cook whole duck is to place in a hot over and turn down low to roast slowly. So it doesn't sit in its own fat, put the duck on a rack or bed of veg in the oven. (Sieve the fat through a paper towel and refrigerate for those potatoes later). Breasts may be cooked in a frying pan; legs are best slow-roasted or braised. PERFECT PEKING Peking Duck - not be confused with the breed Pekin - is a Chinese recipe well known in the west. The bird, especially reared for about 2 months and fattened to 2-3 kilograms, has air pumped between skin and flesh to inflate it. It's then gutted, hung up, blanched with boiling water and coated with maltose, which gives it the typical dark colour. The rear orifice is plugged and boiling water poured in the other end until about 80% full. The bird is then roasted, traditionally hung vertically over fruit-tree wood to give flavour. This produces a bird that is crisp on the outside, with a golden colour and juicy, succulent flesh. Peking Duck is served thinly sliced, rolled in special thin pancakes, brushed with bean paste and accompanied by cucumber and chives.